We present an extension of the neural tree network (NTN) architecture to let it solve multi- class classification problems with only binary fan-out. We then demonstrate it's effectiveness by applying it in a method for image segmentation. Each node of the NTN is a multi-layer perceptron and has one output for each segment class. These outputs are treated as probabilities to compute a confidence value for the segmentation of that pixel. Segmentation results with high confidence values are deemed to be correct and not processed further, while those with moderate and low confidence values are deemed to be outliers by this node and passed down the tree to children nodes. These tend to be pixels in boundary of different regions. We have used a realistic case study of segmenting the pole, coil and painted coil regions of light bulb filaments (LBF). The input to the network is a set of maximum, minimum and average of intensities in radial slices of a circular window around a pixel, taken from a front-lit and a back-lit image of an LBF. Training is done with a composite image drawn from images of many LBFs. The results are favorably compared with a traditional segmentation technique applied to the LBF test case.

Date Published: 1 February 1994
PDF: 12 pages
Proc. SPIE 2093, Substance Identification Analytics, (1 February 1994); doi: 10.1117/12.172546

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 2093:
Substance Identification Analytics
James L. Flanagan; Richard J. Mammone; Albert E. Brandenstein; Edward Roy Pike M.D.; Stelios C. A. Thomopoulos; Marie-Paule Boyer; H. K. Huang; Osman M. Ratib, Editor(s)